Zero Geass Dilemma
by MagusZero
Summary: Nine characters from Code Geass find themselves trapped in a facility by a man calling himself Zero, though he's not the Zero they all know. To escape, they must play the Nonary Game. Any use of Geass is forbidden and will be penalized with death by lethal injection. Based mainly on Zero Time Dilemma, but draws upon Virtue's Last Reward as well.
1. Dilemma

Shirley's head was a mess. Everything seemed to be swirling around her, but she had no idea why. Slowly, her vision began to resolve itself, blotches of color forming familiar shapes…

"Lulu? Kallen? What's going on? What are you two doing here?"

"We don't know," Kallen replied matter-of-factly. "But since we're in a cell, it would seem that someone drugged and kidnapped us."

"My god! Are you okay Kallen? Your condition…"

"Don't worry about me," Kallen replied, unusually brusque. "I'd be more concerned about him," she said, gesturing at Lelouch.

"Nunnally!" he cried, trying to reach through the bars to the cell across from them.

"Big brother, is that you?" piped up the blind girl's voice.

Lelouch's voice was breaking with anxiety and rage. "Yes. Are you okay? Did… did they do anything to you?" It frightened Shirley a little bit, but she couldn't blame him. Lulu had always doted on Nunna, and he would protect his little sister no matter what. Hopefully he could get them out of this mess too.

"Nunally's fine, Lelouch," said another voice, a male voice. "You have my word that I'll look after her."

"They captured you too, Suzaku?" She shouldn't have been so surprised. If so many of the Student Council members had been taken, then it made sense that they would have gone after him too. But she had thought he would have been able to put up a fight against whoever had kidnapped them. Or perhaps they had drugged him too, before he could do so.

"Yeah, I suppose they did, Shirl- Ow! Arthur!"

They even got the cat?

"Is anyone else from the Student Council there with you? Do you know where Milly and Nina are?"

"No, but there's a guy named Rai here, wearing an Ashford uniform. I can't recall seeing him before. He claims not to remember anything other than his name either."

"Release us at once!" a female voice shouted from another cell. "You dare put your lowly hands on a Britannian officer?"

"Give it a rest, Villetta," cut in a voice that Shirley recognized from television broadcasts – that of the disgraced Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald. "It's not helping. Obviously our captor isn't just going to release us because we ask him too. By the way, Villetta, do you know this kid?"

"Rolo Haliburton, at your service."

"I don't know him," Villetta replied. "But if not Kururugi, that "Rai" has to be behind this! Another filthy Eleven… and I don't buy that memory loss excuse for a second. He's the mastermind!"

"Please… stop fighting…" Nunnally implored. "We have to work together."

"Nunna's right!" Shirley said as she stood up. But then…

"Hey, what's this on my wrist?" It was a black bracelet that had a screen on its top and several protrusions along the sides. She had a very bad feeling about it.

"All of us have them," Kallen answered. "You can try to remove it, but it's not going to work. Even Suzaku couldn't break his."

"Ah, I see that all of you are now awake," a deep voice said, and they heard footsteps coming down the hall. A tall man entered the space between the cells, but it was impossible to discern his identity, for he was dressed in black robes, decorated with a crimson, bird-like sigil, and wore a wide hat and a beak-like mask. He looked creepy, and even Lulu tensed at the sight. "Allow me to introduce myself: I am Zero."

"Liar!" Jeremiah shouted. "I saw the real Zero, face-to-face! You may have a mask, but you don't even have the right one! Even your voice is different! The only thing you two share is your apparent love for the theatrical!"

"You may call me Zero the Second then. But it doesn't really matter. To the point, you have all been wondering why I have gathered you here, and for that matter, where here is. I shall answer the former. I would like all of you to take part in a game."

"What sort of game?" Lelouch asked warily.

"A game that will determine not only your fates, but those of the entire world. It is called a Nonary Game, for nine people, you before me, will be tasked with escaping from this facility."

"How do we do that?"

"That will be explained in due time. You've also doubtlessly noticed that you are held in cells in groups of three. These are your initial teams. Jeremiah, Villetta, and Rolo are J-Team, and Jeremiah will be its leader. Rai, Nunnally and Suzaku will be R-Team, and Rai will be its leader. Lastly, we have Shirley, Lelouch, and Kallen as S-Team, with Shirley as the leader."

"Wait… what… why me? Lulu's our Vice President…"

"Those are teams, Miss Fenette, and you are your team's leader."

"There are a few other things I should note," Zero II continued. "One among you is the former Zero."

"What?! The real Zero's here? Unmasked? Identify yourself!" Jeremiah raved.

"Another of you works for me."

"They're both traitors!" Villetta shouted.

"And three of you have a special power… it is called Geass. However, the use of Geass shall be forbidden during the Nonary Game. Those who use the power will be immediately penalized with a lethal injection via their bracelets of tubocurarine, without the benefit of Soporil-β to put them to sleep first."

"Why should we believe this talk of 'special powers'?" Kallen asked. "For all we know, you're just trying to turn us against each other."

"Because some of you have already experienced being under the influence of these powers for yourselves… not that you would remember it. But we digress. We have our first game to play… one might even call it a Decision Game. Miss Fenette?"

"Yes?"

"I shall take your decision as representative for the whole group in our first game."

"Leave Shirley alone!" Lelouch snapped, and she couldn't help but be glad. At least as a friend, Lulu cared about her.

"This does not concern you, Mr. Lamperouge," Zero II replied. "This is a choice she must make on her own. Or would you rather be penalized for obstructing the game?"

"What… do I have to do?" she managed. It was taking everything she had not to completely freak out now. But she couldn't let Lulu die on her account.

"Make a gamble, with the lives of everyone here in the balance. I will flip a coin. It has a red side and a blue side. If you win the flip, the Nonary Game ends immediately, and you will all be free to leave. Lose the flip, and everyone will have to play the Game until it ends normally. Refuse to answer, and all of you will be penalized and die. But I assure you, the Soporil in your bracelets will make it quite painless when the tubocurarine is injected nine minutes later."

The coin flew into the air, turning faster than Shirley could keep track of it. Zero II immediately stepped over it as it landed, preventing her from seeing the outcome of the flip.

"So, what is your decision, Shirley? Red… blue… or death?"

"I…. I…."

 **A/N: This was an idea that occurred to me a while ago. I was happening to think of Zero Time Dilemma when I noticed that there were parallels between D-Team (Diana, Sigma, and Phi) and some of the characters of Code Geass (Shirley, Lelouch, and Kallen), whether in terms of appearance or personality, role, or voice actor. So, running with the idea, I decided to throw them into a Zero Escape scenario and devised two more themed teams to round out the set.**

 **This may be a one-shot, or I may expand it later, depending on time or interest. If I do continue, there are certainly some ZTD scenarios I'd like to re-enact with the Code Geass cast. But I don't plan to strictly draw from ZTD. There would certainly be plenty of nods to VLR, which I'm currently playing, as well.**


	2. Nonary Game

"Blue!" Shirley decided.

Zero II stepped to the side, revealing the coin.

It was red.

"You lost the flip," Zero II announced pitilessly. "And so the game continues."

"You blew it, girl!" Villetta snapped.

"I'm sorry!" Really she was, but her words just seemed utterly inadequate right now. Because she chose wrong, everyone would have to play this madman's game and suffer the consequences.

"Don't be," Kallen said. "You did what you had to. Anyone would have had a 50 percent chance on that, even a gambler like Lelouch. If you want to blame anyone, blame Zero II there for putting us in this mess."

"I agree," said Lelouch. He then turned to Zero II. "So are you going to tell us the rest of the rules of your game now?"

"Of course, Mr. Lamperouge. Everyone, please press the buttons on the sides of your bracelets' screens. I assure you, it is quite safe."

The group wordlessly complied, and after a moment, Lelouch did as well.

"Your bracelets display the information you need to know in the Nonary Game. Firstly, they tell you the time as would any digital clock. It is simple enough, but you would do well to remain mindful of it."

"The light in the lower corner is a heart rate monitor," Zero II continued. "As long as it detects your pulse, your bracelets will remain on. Upon death, or the end of the Nonary Game, whichever comes first, your bracelets will automatically be released from your wrists. Any attempt to tamper with your bracelets or the heart rate monitor therein will automatically result in penalization."

"But most interestingly…." Zero II said, his voice growing low. "Who will you trust in this game? Of course, three of you have the power of Geass and one of you is already a traitor to the group, but you all have things to hide. Can you entrust your lives to one another? Or will you selfishly betray your companions to ensure your own survival?"

"Observe the number on your screens. It should read '3' right now. Let us call this number your Bracelet Points, or BP. To leave this facility, you must simply obtain the requisite number of BP, and then make your way to the End Door."

"How many BP do we require?" asked Lelouch. "And how do we get it?"

"That depends, Mr. Lamperouge. At the start of the game, everyone will require 9 BP if they are to unlock the End Door. But this number is simply however many of you remain alive. With each death, the amount of BP required to leave will decrease by 1."

"Wait… you can't mean…." Shirley felt sick.

"It's an incentive for murder," Kallen said calmly, almost too calmly, with a cold edge in her voice that Shirley hadn't heard before.

"That's horrible!" Nunnally cried.

"You bastard!" Lelouch shouted. "I swear, if any of you even think of harming Nunnally…"

"Your concern for your sister is duly noted, Mr. Lamperouge. But rest assured, nobody need die. For while the BP needed to escape decreases as more of you die, earning BP is quite a different matter. Have you heard of the Prisioner's Dilemma?"

"Of course. In the dilemma, you are a criminal. You and your partner in crime are captured and held separately. You're each approached by the authorities. If both of you refuse to testify, you each get a 2 year sentence. If you testify against him, and he remains silent, you go free and he gets 10 years. The opposite is also true. If you both testify against each other, you each get 5 years."

"A textbook example, but it will suffice. So it is in our Nonary Game. At the end of each round of the Nonary Game, we shall play our own version of the Prisoner's Dilemma. I call it the Ambidex Game. In the Ambidex Game, you will choose whether to ally with or betray each other. Parties that mutually ally each get 2 BP. A party that betrays one that allies with them gets 3 BP, while the foolish one loses 2BP. Parties that both betray each other receive 0 BP. Any party that has 0 BP or less at the end of the Ambidex Game will be penalized."

"Are we these parties the other teams?"

"Always seeking to know the rules so you can use them to your best advantage, aren't you, Mr. Lamperouge? But no… that brings us to our final point. Each of you: what does it say under your total BP? It should be appearing now. Everyone, read it aloud."

"Um… SOLO," Shirley said.

"PAIR," said Lelouch.

"Same here: PAIR." Kallen added.

It was much the same for the others. On J-Team, Jeremiah was SOLO, while Villetta and Rolo had PAIR. Likewise, on R-Team, Rai was SOLO, while both Nunnally and Suzaku were PAIR.

"Hmm… so all the team leaders are SOLOs. Interesting," Lelouch murmured. "So then are the SOLOs playing the Ambidex Game with the corresponding PAIRs on their teams?"

"Very astute."

"No! I don't want to have to play against you, Lulu!" Shirley moaned.

"Don't worry, it will be okay, Shirley. I just have to choose 'Ally' when the Ambidex Game comes up, right?"

"Um… yeah. Thanks, Lulu."

"And Suzaku," Lelouch continued. "You're a PAIR with Nunnally. Don't let that guy over there pull any fast ones on you."

"Why would I-" Rai began.

"Why would you? That hardly matters now. What matters is that I trust Suzaku to protect my sister no matter-"

"There is one more small matter that remains to be addressed," Zero II interrupted. "The End Door will only open once, and then only for nine seconds. Once it closes again, the Nonary Game will end, and all remaining players will be allowed to freely roam the facility and enjoy their stay for the rest of their lives."

"What? You mean if those kids get out before-" Villetta started.

"I believe I've said enough for now," Zero II said, ignoring her. "You all must sleep now. When you awaken, it will be time for your first challenges as teams."

Shirley felt a slight pricking sensation in her wrist. Almost immediately, her vision began to swim, and an overpowering sense of drowsiness came over her.

"The Soporil!" Jeremiah managed from the other cell, struggling to retain consciousness, as Rolo fell to the ground besides him.

"Pleasant dreams…"

And Shirley knew no more as sleep claimed her.


End file.
